Olden days in Nkana by June Bohl

From Great North Road

I would like to share some stories from the olden days in Nkana.

My father Dick Walker, first arrived on the Copperbelt in 1929, having ridden his Enfield Motorcycle up from Shamva Gold Mine in Southern Rhodesia.......He signed on as Assistant Mine Storekeeper with the Bwana Mkubwa Mining Company on Armistice Day, l929.

All the wives and men coming up from South Africa to sign on the mines, used to arrive in Nkana over rutted roads, perched on top of Boxes on the lorry which ran from the railhead at Bwana Mkubwa.

In those days he started on a salary of 30 Pounds a month and after two and half months he got a raise of Two Pounds and Ten shillings, for good service... He was the only employee who could be trusted to receive the liquor supplies that arrived on the Lorry..

Later on he also ran the Rhokana Cinema for many years and at times stepped in as Township Manager..Altogether he worked 10,566 shifts..

On September 26, l963, due to ill health he retired as the LONGEST SERVING EMPLOYEE of 34YEARS..He was given a big farewell dinner at the Rhokana Club and the General Manager presented him with a Plaque and Cheque...

Sadly he passed away a year later......

(Incidently although he went on to larger motorcyles he saved that old Enfield, all those years)....

In 1929 my parents lived in the first Kimberley Brick Mine houses with corrugat%d iron roofs, very hot especially in October, commonly known as suicide month, these were just south of where Ernies mine mess was later built. At first they shared this little house with Kit and Alec Ross parents of Buddy, anyone remember Buddy Ross?

On June 5th l932, I came into this world, the 4th baby born born in the tiny Nkana mine hospital with Dr(Mrs)Fischer attending. More houses had now been built as far down as 7th avenue and we moved to a new house, with an asbestos roof, in Uchi Street. A short walk through the bush to the slimes dam, where we took dogs to romp around,and we would also play with the slimes mud.

Back in those days all the houses only had black wood stoves and ice boxes, the servants were sent to get the weekly blocks of ice from the icehouse on 1st avenue, next to the Bakery, which was run by Mr Blumberg, next door to the old mine mess...We didnt have any fresh milk for years so we used powdered milk called "KLIM", all our drinking water had to be boiled, we cooled it in canvas bags hung outside the kitchen door ...We had a Houseboy, Kitche. Boy and 2 garden boys, some people also had a cookboy, ironing was done outside, by the houseboy using the old fashioned non-electric irons, the lid was lifted and hot coals went inside, a second iron was kept hot on the wood stove, while using the first iron. Laundry was done outside using the big galvanised iron baths. Everything had to be ironed to kill off any tsetse fly or other disease carrying eggs, that may have been laid on the wash while hanging out.

We shopped at the Trading stores located where the bioscope stands today I still remember the wooden floorboards of the shops, the little Post office was where the single quarters were later built...

Whenever a kids birthday party was celebrated everyone came, the Mom's for Tea and cake and after work the Dad's all showed up to have drinks, it now became Sundowner time. Of course this was a regular pastime in those days Tea parties and Sundowners...

When we lived at 5 Uchi Street, the cemetery was way out, down in the Bush, no paved roads then.. Coffins were made in the Carpenter shop,(Archie Campbell, my adopted uncle) was the Foreman... A Vanette was used as a hearse, my Mom used to make the flower wreaths for the funerals.

Across from the Mine Hospital the area where the General Offices now stand used to be a green lawn park with a bandstand and every Sunday the Askari Band, under the leadership of Major...?(cant remember his name, always wore a rose in his buttonhole) The band used to play music while the adults sat around gossiping and we children would run about and play...Just like the Sundowners, card playing, tea parties people had to make their own entertainment..

In those early days Malaria was very prevalent so we always slept under mosquito netting over our beds.. Dr Coetzee, who later became the Chief Medical Officer was instrumental in fighting to eradicate the malaria by various methods such as spraying our houses with "FLIT every night as soon as the sun went down.. He also had teams of natives walking around the township houses, with tanks on their backs, spraying any standing water with some kind of oil and especially around the banana trees in our yards, a favorite breeding place for mosquitos... Over the years I had several bouts of malaria myself.. We also had deaths due to Black Water Fever.

The Rhokana Club where the wedding receptions, children's fancy dress parties and Xmas parties and dances were held used to be open in the center with a little garden, with a pond and a couple of long legged birds (Storks, I think).. And along side of the club where the men's bar and the bottle store were, there were several cages of monkeys that we children liked to look at, "our mini zoo". Saturday matinees at the bioscope were sixpence and a tickey (3d) would buy a handful of candy.

The very first school was the Boma in Kitwe, it was surrounded in a wooded area, our playground was among the trees and Kitwe Trading Stores were just starting to be built where the bush had been cleared... During the war years (in the 40's) the school was all fenced in with barbed wire and all the foreigners such as Germans and Poles were rounded up from all over the Copperbelt and interred there. (It was fashionable for some of the Mine Managers to have Polish nannies for the their children).

Meanwhile a new school was being built and a tall man with a big smile who taught the boys football and we as little kids feared was Mr Frederick Knapp, our Headmaster and the new school was named after him.

Although my Dad had a car I was always taken to school sitting on the tank of his now, larger Motorcycle.I guess Motorcycles are in the blood, I married a motorcycle rider/racer and now my Son rides a Harley Davidson. Boma Street got its name from the first Police Station in Nkana, this too was in an area without houses around, just a dirt road..The native style building was surrounded by very tall thick Bamboo Canes forming a holding area for the prisoners, such as houseboys, turning up drunk for work or stealing, it was very exciting to go with my Dad to collect one of our servants I would peek between the canes into the holding yard, intriguing for a young girl. This was later dismantled and the Boma moved to our old school, I assume it is still in the same place today.

Now Kitwe had 4 Department Stores..Economy Stores, Kitwe Stores, Kohlenbergs and Standard Trading...The Gersh Brothers owned and operated Economy, Kitwe was the scottish couple the MacDonald's, Mr Kohlenberg and Syd Diamond the Standard Trading..he later bought out mr Kohlenberg and enlarged Std Trading.....

Crossing the Kafue River.

Crossing the Kafue River.

Two photos crossing the Kafue River in the early days, 1 is the pontoon operated by the local Africans and the other one is my father holding me, the baby, June.

Swimming in the Kafue river.

A picture of our family swimming in the Kafue river, I am the little girl being held by my Dad. My sister is the baby.

Playing in the backyard.

This is a picture of us playing in the backyard of the Uchi street house, I think the girl with the hat on is Eileen Hartley, my little sister Dawn and I are the ones without hats on, playing in the sandpit

garden of our house in Uchi Street.

This is the front garden of our house in Uchi Street, Note the bush across the street, houses not yet built..Me in my car.

car in Uchi Street.

This is my Mom and Grandma, beside the car in Uchi Street, Nkana in the 30's

Slimes Dam, Nkana, in the early days.

This is a picture of the Slimes Dam, Nkana, in the early days.

Dick Walker.

A picture of my Dad receiving his 34 year award from the General Manager of Rhokana Corporation.

Kitwe Township, now had 4 departmental stores, a little post office, and Copperfields Butcher They were followed by 2 hair salons, (where the ladies sat in little curtained off cubicles, heaven forbid that anyone besides the operator saw you sitting under one of those space age machines with wires dangling from them attached to your hair) and soon there were two tea rooms as well.

We all ran monthly accounts at the stores, and each one had a little 4x6 Order Book, at home you would write your order in for the groceries or the book for the Butcher, every morning at about 7.a.m. the Delivery boy would arrive at the back door on his bicycle, to pick up your book, if you wished to place an order. He would do the rounds of all the houses and peddle back to town, by the afternoon the groceries were delivered once again by the order boy.

Before "Wusikili" was built the native compound used to be on the outskirts of town going towards Mindola, somewhere about First avenue area, later torn down and mine houses built.

The Pump Station at the Kafue River was a long way down, on a rutted dirt road through the bush, (this later became the continuation of Central Street and then it didnt seem that far away anymore)..There were many lovely picnic spots along the river, of course we always had to watch out for snakes...

By now the mine houses were all the way down to 13th avenue, just before the Railway crossing, I must mention a silly pastime, when the weekly passenger train left Nkana station, we would say goodbye to the passengers, as the train slowly chugged out of the station everyone would get in their cars and race to the 13th Avenue crossing to wave again, then we would race down 11th avenue to the next crossing south of Uchi street. ..Those were the old Garrett Steam Engines so it took a while for the train to pick up speed. Like I said before we had to make our own entertainment....

EK PARK hadnt been cleared yet and it became a short cut through the woods to go to Kitwe Town, there were lots of big trees and anthills, a very pleasant walk through.

The mine also provided a funny old blue bus that ran every weekday from the club, across from the bioscope, along 1st Avenue down Boma street to town, the last stop was at the empty lot across the street from the front of the Copperfields Butcher. The african driver was Simon and he would stop wherever the housewives wanted to be dropped off or picked up and it was all free... The bus even ran on cinema nights, which were Wednesdays and Saturdays.. Kitwe township stores did not open on Saturdays, until later.

Every so often we would get a visit from natives down from the Belgium Congo they would come by bicycle loaded down with treasures to sell.. So they would come door to door with beads, silver bracelets, curios, candy and even African grey parrots..They stood out by their dress, long white tunics with a Fez on their head, a few days later they would be gone for a few months..

We, kids spent a lot of time at the swimming pool and every Friday at noon the Askari Band in smart Khaki uniforms with a red Fez & black tassle would march around the the streets, past the front of the swimming pool, playing marching tunes.. We would all run out in our swimsuits to watch them go by.. The leader up front, proudly swinging his baton up in the air, a big thrill for us...

Mrs Junius ran the tea kiosk, and Pop Patrick, very deeply tanned managed the pool, he used to yell at us when we climbed the fountain... We all eagerly awaited the waiter bringing the tray of "Hot Meat Pies" from the club.. Two shillings each... Every year a Gala with races and water polo was held...

Christmas Eve was the big night for the Dinner Dance at the Rhokana Club and New Years Eve the Nkana Hotel..The Hotel always put up a huge tarpaulin across the open courtyard, since it was the rainy season it invariably would pour down buckets and if there was no rain it was very hot and humid under that canvas.

Every Sunday after the sports the place to be was the Rhokana Club for the Sundowners with and dancing and afterwards across the street to the bioscope...During the week Rhokana club was a popular hang out every evening for the single guys. Another place to go on Sundays were the Braai's at the Chibaluma Club....

The Kafue river had to be crossed by pontoon until the first bridge was built and even then when we had heavy rains the flooding was so bad the bridge would be under water and everyone would drive out to see it...Later it was replaced by a higher bridge. When it rained we had all those Flying Ants coming out of the ground and the Shongololas falling from the sky!!!!..

As the mine grew, more houses were built and went down Central street as far as 17th Avenue. My father chose the corner house number 24. It is built high up in the front and he was able to create a beautiful garden with a water lily & fish pond, bird avaries, one side terraced down from the back to the front under a grape arbor. My parents had planted lovely unusual shrubs and flowers.. No Banana, Mango or Mulberry trees in this yard only vegetables and chickens for fresh eggs.. Our garden was used by several brides for wedding pictures and won best garden awards.

The General Manager, Mr O.B.Bennett, lived at the other end of 17th avenue, then when 3 new big white houses were built opposite the Boma in Kitwe for management, Mr Bennett moved to one which, we all called "The White House".

In front of our house where Prince Charles School now stands was all bush and so we would get snakes in our yard from time to time. Those snakes also liked to hide in the wood pile, that most of us had in the backyard, for our black kitchen stoves.

Central street was still a dirt road through the bush and across Central street to the side of our house, were the Brickfields and the caretakers, a sweet little old Greek couple, who lived in a little cottage, in the yard.

In the early 50's Copper Prices were soaring and people were pouring into the Copperbelt towns everyday, mostly from South Africa, new houses were going up so fast spreading out, all the way down Geddes, Kantanta, Princess, Philip and Central streets.. Kitwe was also growing, Dave Klein opened the Astra Cinema, Bennetts Chemists, O.K. Bazaars, Werners Butchery, the Co-op Store, Fullers Bakery, Petals Florist, even an ice-cream hut run by the Scorer family were among many new additions, too numerous to mention.

About 1951-52 Mindola Dam was created with a Yacht and Fishing club, a new place to go on weekends.

Old Timers will also remember the tragic Explosion of the mine train carrying Dynamite, lives were lost, it was a devasting scene

Kafue River outside Nkana.

Kafue River outside Nkana.

Kafue River outside Nkana.

These are pictures of the Kafue River outside Nkana when it flooded in February 1952, part of the bridge was underwater, look in the far distance and you can see people on the other side, this is the old bridge. The other one is out of the train window

Garden_1948.

Have stuck 3 pictures together to try to show you some of my parents house. Front view and Central street side..these were taken August 1948. Thought you may like to view them.

June Bohl 1948.

A picture of me, (probably 1948,?) this is taken on 17th Avenue, long before the Prince Charles School was built there, just to show you the jungle.

Dawn - Central Street.

This is Dawn, my sister standing on Central Street in front of our house 24-17th avenue, this shows the jungle before the houses were built, still a dirt road going down to the river.

Redsox Baseball players.

Photo of 4 guys..Does anyone recognise them, Nkana late 50's, Redsox Baseball players...Left to right, Bob, Ben and Brian..Joe Oliver old boyfriend of mine is in center, with a baseball cap on his head...He spent a lot of time at the mine club playing snooker and drinking too much.

Chirundu Bridge in the 30's.

The early Chirundu Bridge in the 30's

Chirindu Immigration Post in 1951.

This is a picture of my sister and I at the Chirindu Immigration Post in 1951. I'm the one sitting on the car, that's Dawn standing.

Terrible Dynamite Train Explosion.

Not much to see here except the bush, but this was at the scene of a terrible Dynamite train explosion, it was very gruesome at the time...Were you there?

Contributed by the late June Bohl

Northerners!

June Bohl has made her name on the GNR as a great contributor to our culture and history. Thanks June for a wonderful story of our lives and our town which you followed through admirably!

But many others have been adding to this remarkable experience over the years, and when you add all this information up, you have a resplendent and astonishing amount of material. This is material that we could all tap into when we wanted. It is all on computer disk. It is all available. Anyone writing a book or compiling some sort of history would easily be able to retrieve this information.

This is the respository of our nation and our heritage.

Thanks for contributing, countrymen and women of Northern Rhodesia and Zambia!

Groete...

Dave Cooper - Founder of the Great North Road

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In the early summer of 2001 June and I started an exchange of e-mails about Nkana-Kitwe, thankfully she plucked up the courage to write her story above about the early days of our home town. From that point on, June needed no further prompting, her contributions to the GNR came thick and fast and we received many gems to share with you all here on the GNR. For me her story above and the stunning Kitwe postcards were one of my high points in running this side of the GNR site.

A great and genuine contributor, sadly June never made it to see the Boma, I’m sure she would have loved it. I will miss our friendly e-mails greatly.

Thank you June, go well.

Arthur Steevens